Letters Across the Pond: Spring and Work Simplification

Note from jodi: Things are more than a little hectic with me right now, from talks to deadlines to a garden exploding in glee. Happily, Sylvia has come to my rescue and written a new letter, which I'm sharing with you. Please take the time to comment as we're enjoying doing this and hope our readers are enjoying it as well. It's fun to have a dialogue between a gardener in England and one in Nova Scotia.

Dear Jodi,

No not everyone writes at 4 in the morning! I do hope you enjoyed the show, even if it was work, I read a comment somewhere that you were reading blogs while having a quiet moment at the show. I can imagine that the show is really tiring so I'm not surprised that you were taking a break but it still made me chuckle. I also saw your comment on Melanie's Old Country Gardens blog that you write "to do lists", I am always writing lists. I have several on the go at the moment, the "must do now" and the "to do when I have time" lists. I am sure that you can guess that both are long. Spring is my favourite time of the year but the garden seems to need more work than I have time for and I only have a small garden. On my last letter Karen (An Artist's Garden) commented that "small gardens take a lot more work than bigger ones" I wonder if that is true, what do you think? I hope so because with your time constraints and your large garden, I can't imagine how you keep it looking so lovely. I am pleased your husband is helping out, if he helps with the weeding will he know which are weeds, I would worry!

One way of reducing the work is shrubs, though most of them still need pruning, though I see that you have been getting the snow to help you! I am sorry that your viburnums got damaged in the snow, I do wonder how you can protect them next year. I have a few shrubs and trees though not as many as I would like, I would also like to be able to plant several of one or two plants to cover an area but that wouldn't satisfy my plant lust. One plant I hope to get this year is a trillium, I have this perception that they are difficult to grow, possibly because they are expensive. It will be an easy job for me to count them, I wonder what your count will be, I hope it is more than last year. Counting flowers is not something I have ever done but I remember that your husband counted your snowdrops as well. It must be interesting to keep a record each year to compare.


Spring is moving on in my garden, I have lots of plants out in flower including, poppies and iris. My first poppy to flower is Patty's Plum, I love the colour of this poppy though it doesn't show up as well as some of the other colours. How I yearn for your blue poppy, our winters are not normally cold enough to grow it, I saw my first ones in flower while on holiday last June. This year I will have to make do with your pictures and any others I can see on blogs. Blogs are a lovely way to enjoy flowers we can't grow and to prolong the seasons. Your spring may be later but I am enjoying seeing all my favourite flowers again.


I have finished digging the last border in my back garden, by the willow circle. Most of this bed is in full sun - as an aside, I find planting in sun much harder than shade, most of the plants I like are shade lovers - I have put a tree peoania in. I do like tree peonies but they are expensive so this is my very first one, I love them as plants so the flowers will be an interest but not the main reason to grow them. The other plants I have put in are all plants that I have in pots, I seem to accumulate pots of plants with nowhere to put them. I have put in some very tall lilies that have been advertised a lot this year and I couldn't resist, they were not very expensive but I have had to spray them because we get a horrible red lily beetle that eats lilies and other related plants. The local cats have found this bed and making use of it!

The other pest I am having problems with this year is mice or a mouse! I lost a lot of my spring bulbs, that were in containers and now it has taken a fancy to some dahlia tubers I have just planted in pots. Hopefully the mouse trap will work, so far he/she has eaten the peanut butter butter and got away. I am not sure where these dahlia's will go yet but will keep them snug against the house walls until all chance of frost has gone and the nights are warmer, hopefully mid May.


Talking of May my next letter will mainly be about my holiday, we will be visiting lots of gardens but I will only be able to tell you a little about one or two. I enjoy visiting gardens and my husband enjoys the walk, but neither of us can resist bringing some plants back with us. Luckily (or unluckily) car room will restrict how many!

Must finish now, hope you have managed to get into your garden at some point in your busy life.

Best wishes Sylvia

Travels and Adventures and Seedlings

Got anything on this weekend coming? Maybe you'd like to pop down to the Harrison Lewis Centre in East Port L'Hebert for the 'Tree-dy Saturday' seedling exchange/sale. You can find out more about the Centre at their website, and I will tell you more about it in the not-too-distant future. I haven't been there yet, and won't get there this weekend because of a previous commitment, namely a talk at Bunchberry Nurseries in Upper Clements for the Magnolia festival, as mentioned before. 

I haven't updated for a few days and haven't been visiting many blogs this past week or so but with rather good reasons. First, this past weekend, I was away in beautiful St. Andrews, New Brunswick, for Charlotte County Blooms, an annual event that takes in gardeners from the local area. I'd been invited to speak here several years in a row, but it's always been the same weekend as Saltscapes Expo. This year, they changed the date, and I was sooooo happy to come to one of my favourite Maritime communities. 

The morning speaker was the inspiring and affable Betty Kennett of Hampton, NB, and she entertained and educated the crowd of 200+ gardening enthusiasts. In the afternoon, it was my turn to (hopefully) be entertaining and educational too. What a LOT of hard work put in by everyone who organized this fabulous event, and by all the exhibitors at the trade shore part of the day. My garden hat is off to them all. 

This young artist creates fabulous sculptures from wood: from Celtic designs to pea pods! His work is gorgeous, although I don't think I'd put it outdoors in my garden. I'd have it in my office where I could always look at it while I was working, regardless of the season. 

Longsuffering spouse went with me to St. Andrews, which was awesome because he got to drive on this rather long trip, while the weary gardener, garden writer and editor slept. And we were put up by wonderfully gracious and friendly hosts at their home, Tatterscot, right on the main street in St. Andrews...

Where their back yard is actually their front yard because it looks out on the sea. And I mean RIGHT. On. The. Sea. Well, the lower Bay of Fundy, and to be exact Passamaquoddy Bay, the lower end of my own Bay of Fundy. So they know all about gardening by the sea, and they do it very well. 

This photo was taken at mostly low tide, and I don't have a good photo with me of what the scene would look like at high tide...because most of my photos are back home in Scotts Bay with my external hard drive. I'm in Liverpool again. 

Well, I'm in Liverpool a lot these days. Because I took on a new challenge a while back, and now am editing three magazines for DvL Publishing; Rural Delivery, Atlantic Beef, and Atlantic Forestry. It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. I've been privileged to write for Dirk van Loon a good deal over the past number of years-and in fact, he published the first thing I ever had published, a story that was in Atlantic Horse & Pony (where I'm now contributing editor) back in 1990. It's pretty cool. Car's getting quite a bit of mileage, and Spunky is cranky when I'm away, but I'm loving the new challenge.

The goutweed is the only downside, as it's getting out of hand in my garden on the days I'm away. Anyone got a cure for that? We won't be giving away any at the Tree-dy Saturday, however!

Of Magnolias, Milton, and Margaret Marshall Saunders

The unseasonably warm weather of the past few days has really brought some plants along, especially down on the south shore of the province. In Liverpool and surrounding area, the magnolias have burst into fabulous (and sometimes, fragrant) bloom. Meanwhile, back at home, mine are still snuggled in their sweaters, not ready to blossom just yet. 

I took a drive at lunchtime today, and went out past Pine Grove into Milton. This is a small community adjoining Liverpool, and it's hard to tell when the town ends and the smaller village begins. But this is a definite sign of Milton: the falls in the Mersey River at the one-lane bridge spanning the river. No, they're not Niagara; more like a bit of rapids, and I don't know what the riverbed is like or if this is the result of something having been built there (there have been sawmills and other activity around the falls for years).  

On the other side of the bridge, the water streams out into the widening river. On the other shore, there's a little park. Let's go see what it's all about, shall we? 

There are a LOT of magnolias around this area, as I mentioned earlier, and they're rapidly coming into full bloom. The flowers on this particular stellata variety are sweetly fragrant, but it's a subtle fragrance. Very nice. 

They're subtle in colour too; white with a hint of pink tint. I love magnolias, and can grow Stellatas just fine, although as mentioned above, mine in the Bay are still snoozing and swelling in their buds. 

I don't know which variety this is: magnolias are not my strong suit, but they're something I do love and am learning more about. I'll be learning even more about them next week, as Annapolis Royal kicks off with its Magnolia Festival. Annapolis, another of my favourite places in my province, is home to the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens and Bunchberry Nurseries, and I'll be giving a talk at Bunchberry at 2 pm on May 9. But not about magnolias. I leave that to my cherished friend Dick Steele, the night before at the Gardens. 

I leave you now with a bit of "I didn't know that!" information. Most of us wept our way through reading two classics of literature in our youth: Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell, and Beautiful Joe by Margaret Marshall Saunders. Being more of a horse and cat person than a dog person, and more of a modern/contemporary CanLit fan than a Victorian writing enthusiast, I had read the latter years ago and had avoided re-reading it while doing my degrees at Acadia. And I had completely, utterly forgotten that Marshall Saunders had been born in Nova Scotia: in Milton, to be exact. Beautiful Joe was the first Canadian novel to sell more than a million copies, and it's on curriculae at many universities. Marshall Saunders disguised herself as a man and used her middle name as her first name in order to gain acceptance as a writer, (women writers not being that common or acceptable in the Victorian era). I like that she is remembered and honoured with this park by the river, in a lovely part of my province, watched over by magnolias and the ever-talking river. 

Pinks, Whites and Blues on a warm spring day

Over the weekend, while I was in Halifax having fun at the Saltscapes Expo (and meeting a delightful woman who LOVES goutweed!), my garden was bathed in warm sunlight. Things woke up, yawned and stretched, and got blooming in a hurry. These pink Glory-of-the Snow just keep spreading beautifully every season. 

This is Puschkinia, or striped squill, which I love for its cool blue and white flowers. It too spreads, flowers for a fairly long time, and isn't as common as I think it ought to be. 

The blue Chionodoxa, or Glory-of-the-Snow, are spreading beautifully. I love their china blue flowers, facing the sun and beaming their happy colours for everyone to see. 

Ivory Prince hellebore is putting on a fine display. As many of you know, I've had my hellebore challenges in the past, but this plant has settled in really well and now my confidence is being bolstered, so I AM going to add a variety or two or three...


With this week's surprise onslaught of really warm temperatures, we can almost see and hear things growing. Including the weeds, but we won't dwell on those. There have been a great outburst of daffodils, and yeah, while I know some of you had daffodils weeks ago...I'm very happy to see them.


There's been a race between two perennials in my garden, both striving to be the first non-bulb, non-hellebore plants to get into bloom. It's almost neck and neck, but I'm going to call it for the Hepatica, just because it's such a rare, lovely thing. This plant has flowered faithfully for years, growing slowly into a largish clump.


And the pulmonaria have begun their blooming. Their enthusiasms always delight my heart; some of them are hardly out of the ground before their happy blue, pink, red or white flowers are opening. I really have to do a post on these as one of my 'must-have' plants, although I think we'll wait until more of them are open and you can enjoy the foliage (which I adore) as much as the flowers.

Today, the temperature is supposed to soar into the mid-high twenties. Tomorrow, who knows. We'll take this warm welcome as a way to ease out of April, thanks very much.

Of Mayflowers and Catnames: Letters Across the Pond

Dear Sylvia:

Doesn't everyone write blog updates and letters at 4 in the morning? Probably not. But when I wake up from a sound sleep in a hotel room, sans cats and LSS, I know there's absolutely no point in going back to sleep any time soon. So since I'm behind in my correspondence with you, as well as with my blog posts, this seemed like a good time to catch my breath and catch you up with life in Nova Scotia. 

This weekend finds me, as I observed in my last post, in Halifax at the 5th annual Saltscapes Expo. This is a unique show for the province, put on by Saltscapes magazine, where I've been a writer for a number of years. Saltscapes is all about Atlantic Canada, and I've been privileged to write about a lot of topics over the years, including, of course, gardening. I'll post photos from the show at some point during the weekend. 

We're experiencing a true spring weekend. After two days of ridiculously prolific wind and rain, the sun pushed through the clouds, quelled the wind somewhat, and put temperatures into the high teens and low 20s celsius, (high 50s and low-mid 60s, for those of us still resisting metric 3o years after the fact). I can HEAR my garden growing from here, but happily, Longsuffering spouse is doing a great job on the basic cleanup. I don't know if I can cajole him into doing any weeding, but he'll edge beds if I ask him nicely. 

In working in the garden myself the other day, I discovered to my sorrow that several of my spring-flowering, fragrant viburnums had a lot of snow damage; broken limbs, some of them right to their main trunks. None of them are particularly large--two were put in last year--but I was very sad to see the damage. Having 5 or 6 feet of snow piled on top of you for weeks on end will do that, alas. I've pruned the breakage, took it inside, and put the twigs into a vase of warm water. Maybe they'll flower. Or not. I may move the two smaller shrubs, and you can be sure I'll protect them next year. The magnolia stellata nearby suffering a couple of small twig breaks, but nothing serious. Nor of course did the curly willow. It's all part of being a gardener, isn't it?


A couple of branches broke off my Pieris shrub too, and those I took inside several weeks ago and put into a vase. They've rewarded me rather nicely.

It's so nice to smell fragrant flowers again! Sure, I've had some cut flowers with lovely scents, like the tulips and lilies I've purchased to help get me through winter, but there's nothing nicer than smelling a sweet fragrance outside in the garden. One of our best spring fragrances, to my mind, is that of our provincial wildflower, the mayflower or trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens.) This ericaceous plant looks nondescript when it's out of bloom, with its leathery, hairy leaves and trailing habit. But then it flowers...



And suddenly, we know for sure that spring really has found our province. These dear plants make me absurdly happy. I can be found sitting on sun-warmed ground in places like my beloved Pine Grove, peering at the flowers, smelling them, taking their photos, and grinning a lot.

I don't pick mayflowers, and while I've been tempted to dig a cluster from the woods near our place, I haven't yet done so. I worry about them the way I do about the ladies slippers, not wanting to disturb them in their natural habitat. But I think this spring I'll wander down to the woodlot below our place, the same site we successfully rescued clumps of red trillium from, and see what I can find. I feel no guilt in rescuing plants from a ravaged woodlot that will likely never see replanting, and besides that, it's almost time to go counting trillium, a ritual of spring that LSS and I faithfully enjoy.


A footnote to today's post is actually directed mostly to your compatriat, James Alexander-Sinclair of Blackpitts. He wondered in his comment on my last post about Spunky Boomerang being saddled with such a name. Despite his questioning of my sanity, I can assure James and other cherished readers that Spunky chose his name himself. He was a wee kitten when we rescued him and his sister from the side of the road where someone had abandoned them, and barely escaped death when he darted across the road in front of a passing vehicle. He got blown into the ditch, and emerged wailing and complaining, went up into my arms and began to purr. And has never expressed a desire to go out-of-doors since. 

We had him and his sister for a few days before he told us his name. They do that, you know. His sister became MangoTango almost immediately, but he was coy for a few days. Then one night I heard LSS talking to someone. I went into his office and he had this little kitten sitting in his hand looking at him. "You're quite the spunky little fellow, aren't you?" he said to the kitten. He put the little fellow down, and he promptly got back up on the desk again. And again. And again. He still does this: climbs up on my desk, and if I put him down, he looks indignant and gets back up. Over and over. He returns...like a boomerang. 

And that's how he told us his name.

That's MY story, anyway. Spunky doesn't mind. He just doesn't like it when I go away. 

Time to wrap this up and get a few more hours of snoozing before I hit the ground running for another busy day of talking gardening with other plant-people. More soonly, and I hope your wonderful garden is savouring every moment of spring. 

cheers, jodi

Mummy's sad kitty...

This is Spunky Boomerang. He often looks reproachful, especially when he wants attention from me. His favourite trick is to get up on the computer desk and stand in front of the monitor, but sitting on the steps wishing I'd come for a nap works too. 

This is part of the very tidy garden. You (and I) can thank Long Suffering Spouse for this. He knows I'm beyond overworked right now, and he took it upon himself (with a little direction) to clean up the gardens really well (where he could get at them. There's still a lot of wet, but things are coming nicely.

We have even more snowdrops happening now. I believe LSS said somewhere around 150 and still counting.


Not that I've had much time to enjoy them. This weekend, I'll be in Halifax, at the fifth annual Saltscapes Expo. Is that POSSIBLE, that we've been doing these for five years? Guess it must be! Anyway, if you're in the area, drop in; I'll be holding court, so to speak, at the Home and Garden stage most of all three days, talking about Herb gardening, gardening without breaking the budget, and doing some Question and Answer sessions. Hopefully lots of eople with lots of answers will come along...I always have questions.

What? You say I'm the one who is supposed to have the answers?
Move over, Spunky. I'll sit here looking tragic too.

Bloomingwriter's awesome Mail Call: Gardening friends across the miles

In talking to my long suffering spouse on Wednesday or Thursday evening, I heard something that made my heart leap. "You've got a parcel from the US," he said. I could hardly wait to get home on Friday afternoon. 

First, there was Anna's lovely card and apron, thoughtfully made with the cat-children in mind as well as the gardener. 

Then there were the letters and cards...normally, my snailmail consists of bills, advertorials, and of course the occasional snailmail letter or card, except at Christmas when we get quite a few more cards. 

This felt like Christmas before I even started opening them. 

I'm a wordsmith and plant person. I don't do needlework or paint or draw or scrapbook, lacking the time or creativity in that direction. I deeply, deeply love and admire those abilities in others. 

You know, I've never met any of my gardening blogging friends face to face, and while I had thought I would do in Chicago, it's not to be this year. But when I talk of friends, I refer to friends such as these; people I've yet to meet, or in most cases even talk to on the phone. 



Yet were they to turn up at my door--or I at theirs--there would be no awkward pauses, no hesitations. There would be hugs (and vetting by cats, in many cases), and tea or coffee andfood and much plant talk and swap and even much more laughter and friendship. 

That's what opening these cards and letters was like; 'meeting' friends old and new (because some are longtime correspondents and fellow bloggers, others newer to us) and having conversations across the miles. 

Like Gail wrote last week to so many accolades last week (including mine)...I am so very fortunate--blessed, even! In the people who share my life, who share the love of gardening and plants and writing, in where I live (the snow is GONE, Anna, all of it, except in the woods!) 

So to Anna (FlowergardenGirl), the fabulous organizer of this fun, and to Jen@ Muddy Boot Dreams, Catherine @ A Gardener in Progress, Ann @ Northeast Gardener, Jared @ Pleasant Hill Ramblings, VP @ Veg Plotting, Kathleen @ Kasey's Korner, Phillip @ Gardens of a Golden Afternoon, Peggy @ Organic Growing Pains, Jan @ Thanks for 2Day, and Kylee @ Our Little Acre...much love and gazillions of thanks across the miles to each of you for your creativity and thoughtfulness. 

I will be writing to each of you individually, but...the sun is out, it's not freezing, and the garden is calling my name! 

Spring in the Giants' playground

I went for a walk last evening in Pine Grove again. This time, the sun was out, it was mild, and everything was touched with a brush of golden light.

This place reminds me of a giant's playground, the way the massive, elegant pines tower skyward, amongst massive boulders that resemble a child's dropped blocks, scattered every which way. 

Imagine my delight when I found bluets awake and blooming in a sheltered bank beside the big pond. Sadly, I had only my iPhone with me AGAIN, (I don't like taking my SLR on long walks) so getting them in focus meant stepping back from them somewhat. 


Bluets have long been a favourite flower, though they're not showy. Many people might not even notice them, tiny and casual as they are. But when I'm not gawking skyward beaming at trees, I'm watching the ground for the wee treasures.

Now, I know a lot of people aren't awfully fond of alders. I rather like them, because they're great for securing the banks of streams, for filtering impurities from water, and their catkins have delighted me since I was a wee child. 

I ask you: who needs a human-built church, temple, or other place of worship and contemplation when there are such marvelous natural places to unwind, think and be glad? 

The Mersey river is quiescent after the rains and melt have subsided. This river does sometimes jump its banks, but isn't as troublesome as some in other parts of the country--and our neighbouring country. That's Liverpool across the river; (Liverpool Nova Scotia, that is!)

Lots more rocks along this shore, and I thought about sitting on one and just 'being' for a little while. But work was calling to me, so I made a promise to return in a few days, and carried on down the trail. 


My friend Captain Dick Steele of Bayport Plant Farm brings many plants to Pine Grove to test them out. The woods are full of his rhododendrons, some azaleas, and other plants. 

Even though the deciduous trees and shrubs aren't yet leafed out, we can really feel, see and smell spring in the air. 

Today, as I write this, there's a shadow of worry over Liverpool and surrounding area. This wonderful place of Pine Grove is owned and maintained by Bowater--yes, of AbitibiBowater, the giant pulp and paper/lumber company that sought bankruptcy protection today. How these things will affect the people who work for Bowater, and the communities around the mill--and these pocket wilderness spaces--we don't know yet. Because I'm an optimist, I'm hoping spring will bring better things to that company as it does to the natural world.